


Summer Nights

by xxxbookaholic



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Can be viewed as platonic or romantic, Canon Compliant, Gen, How Do I Tag, M/M, Pre-Relationship, kind of character analysis, no beta we die like men, spoilers for act 2/part 2, summer of overcomings, your choice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2020-07-21
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:00:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25415827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xxxbookaholic/pseuds/xxxbookaholic
Summary: At age five, Azami didn’t have very many friends.
Relationships: Hyoudou Kumon & Izumida Azami, Hyoudou Kumon/Izumida Azami
Comments: 1
Kudos: 42





	Summer Nights

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is my first time writing for A3!, so if you have any tips on their characterization, please tell me! I usually write for other fandoms, but this time I decided, "how about i write for a practically dead fandom????" and I did! If you enjoy this, please let me know in the comments and/or give this story kudos! I thrive off of validation from strangers on the internet!

At age five, Azami didn’t have very many friends.

Being the son of the Ginsenkai Family chairman, most kids either hated or envied him. It became common sense rather quickly that he would never be like all of the other children.

On top of that, he was also not allowed to attend school, which made searching out friendships even harder.

The only person who ever hung out with him was Shifuto.

He and Shifuto had met by coincidence; they’d both been playing at the park around the same time. Unlike most of the other kids in the neighborhood, Shifuto was kind and accepting. He didn’t mind Azami’s dad, even going as far as to empathize with him because he, too, only had one parent.

After that meeting of chance, they rarely left each other’s side. Both of them played together constantly. Once, Sakyo had even said, “ _sometimes, I feel like I’m babysitting two kids instead of one._ ”

They were practically brothers. It got to the point where Azami no longer yearned to meet new people; he had Shifuto, and that was enough for him.

By eighth grade, Azami had completely given up on the idea of getting more people to accept him. His days were spent in a cycle; he would wake up, make sure his makeup kits were hidden well enough, get dressed, go out, win a fight, hang out with Shifuto, go home, eat dinner with his dad, go to sleep. Rinse and repeat.

That was when Kumon entered his life.

At the time of their meeting, he didn’t expect much out of the encounter. Every now and then a person like Kumon would come around and try to shove themselves into his life; most of the time, those ‘ _people like Kumon_ ’ ended up being from some other yakuza group hoping to get information on Ginsenkai Family.

Two nights after their meeting, though, his dad found the makeup kit that he had forgotten to hide after use.

There was screaming, yelling, and then silence. Azami packed a bag and left, planning to wander aimlessly until he came across an inn. Sakoda had caught him first, though. Even after Sakyo had left the picture, Sakoda always stuck around, so Azami trusted him to find a good place to stay for the time being.

He hadn’t expected that ‘a good place’ meant a chaotic, newbie theater company.

He also hadn’t expected to spot two recognizable faces; one was Sakyo, and the other was the boy he’d ran into days before.

Kumon.

Azami never did forget a face; it was a skill he’d learned from living with a yakuza boss for a dad. Even if he did, though, his memory would have instantly been jogged by the way Kumon immediately pointed him out. It felt oddly nostalgic, as if they’d always been friends.

For the next few days, Kumon followed Azami around relentlessly every time he got the chance. He’d ask questions and Azami would reply with simple answers; their relationship was constantly teetering over the line of friends and strangers. It seemed like there was always both a comfortable distance between the two of them and no distance at all.

Kumon was a weird one. He’d get excited about the smallest things, but whenever those things were tied down to himself, he would freeze up and go quiet. It was as if he was afraid of commitment. Anytime Azami would even subtly bring up the summer troupe play or ask about Kumon’s days playing baseball, he’d find a way to weasel his way out of the topic.

When it came to talking about theater rehearsal, he had a thousand things to say; however when the actual performance was mentioned, he only had one.

Pretty soon, Azami forgot the line between friendship and strangers existed in the first place.

Even when he was a complete outcast in Mankai, Kumon made him feel like he was apart of the group. There were even a few times that Azami would visit the rehearsal room and watch the summer troupe practice. Acting didn’t strike a chord with him, but the actors themselves inspired him in a lot of ways. They were all working to reach their goals; it was what Azami wished he himself could do.

Even when there was no line between him and Kumon, though, there was still a line between his dream and his destiny.

When Kumon got sick the day before closing night of _First Crush Baseball_ , Azami pitied him. He knew how hard he had worked to be able to stand strongly with everybody else on stage, and the idea of having all of that snatched away from him just because of anxiety that he couldn’t control sounded cruel.

When the summer troupe went to cheer Kumon up, Azami found himself wanting to go along with them. Kumon had made Mankai feel like home for him, and in a way, he wanted to pay back the favor. In the end, though, Azami stayed out of it.

Kumon managed to get better due to the comfort that his brother and the rest of the troupe showed him. Azami couldn’t help but think, as he watched the final performance, that he could have been apart of the people kind enough to help.

After the show, Azami found himself sitting on the steps of Mankai Company’s front porch. The stars were high in the sky, the moon was on show for the whole world to see, and Azami felt unbearably lost. He wasn’t sure what to do; when he ran away from home, he had known that his luck wouldn’t be able to last. Eventually, he would have to go home and face his father, and in turn, his destiny.

The door swung open, and Kumon dropped down to sit next to Azami, his eyes sparkling. After a few moments of looking around, he turned to face the latter, his smile unerasable.

“Why are you eating out here alone?”

Azami leaned back on his elbows and twisted his neck so he could see Kumon. “I’m an outsider. Plus, I don’t like noise.”

Kumon looked almost scandalized. He somehow managed to get even closer as he spoke, “you’re our makeup artist!”

Azami shook his head. “I only did it because it turned out that way.” It was true. If it weren’t for the actor’s horrible makeup jobs, he wouldn’t have wasted his time with them.

“Still, you were a really big help! Thanks for today! With your makeup, the audience didn’t even realize that I was sick.” Before Azami could argue that compared to everyone else, he had done nothing, Kumon continued, “That magic brush is amazing! If you use that, I can get a fever any day, because it’ll cover for me.”

_Right,_ Azami thought. _His special makeup brush._ Usually, he wouldn’t let anybody else even go near it. A lot of the time, that brush felt like the only thing that kept his mom’s memory alive. When it came to Kumon, though, he felt like he could trust the brush with someone else.

“I’m going to start charging you next time.”

“Eh?” Kumon yelped, sitting back. _I guess he makes a big deal over everything,_ Azami mused. “How much?”

“100,000 yen a turn.”

Kumon thought for a moment, as if he was calculating out the prices, before he nodded and made a sound of agreement. “Expensive, but doable.”

Azami sighed in exasperation. He sat up straight and rested his hands in his lap, turning to face the sky once more. “Hopefully you won’t need it.”

“Ahh, yeah, I think I’ll be fine from now on,” Kumon laughed. He followed Azami’s gaze to the stars. “For the first time, I pulled through with everyone. That really took a burden off of my heart. ‘I can do it too’—it’s like nothing scares me anymore. Even if I go through the same pressure again, as long as I can remember how this feels, I think I’ll pull it off.”

Azami was quiet for a second before he said, barely above a whisper, “is that so?”

They sat in silence for a few more moments before Kumon breathed in deeply and turned to face Azami again. “You’re never alone when you’re doing theater. You don’t need to take the pressure alone. Even if you lose, all you need is the desire to make people laugh.

“It must have been the same on the mound, too. I didn’t need to think that the pitcher had to pull off a shut-in on his own. I had my teammates with me. They were fighting by my side. I hurt everybody by only realizing that now.”

“Well, isn’t it good that you’ve realized that now?” Azami asked, glancing over at Kumon again.

Kumon laughed at that, his state of melancholy slipping away once more. “Having teammates really is great, huh?”

Azami didn’t answer that. He wasn’t sure how it felt to have teammates; the closest he’d gotten to that was Shifuto and Sakoda.

Suddenly, Kumon turned around to fully face Azami again, leaning in just as close as he’d been at the beginning of their conversation. “Hey, Azami, aren’t you going to join _Mankai Company_ officially?”

Azami was taken aback by the question. He blinked for a few moments before leaning away, just slightly. “What do you mean, officially? I’m not even a temporary member, just a freeloader.”

“Really? But Azuma-kun was looking forward to your makeup for the Winter Troupe!”

“What the heck? Acting isn’t my style, anyway.”

Kumon tilted his head curiously. “Azami, you don’t want to go home, right? If you join, you can live here. It’d be perfect! You can make use out of your makeup skills, too!”

Suddenly, Kumon leaned in and wrapped his arms around Azami, practically immobilizing him. It was uncomfortable and made it kind of hard to breathe, but somehow, it felt like the most comfort he’d gotten in a while.

“If Autumn Troupe gets another member, that room is gonna be full!” Azami flinched at how loud Kumon sounded. He was practically shouting into his ear.

“Ah— Well, I’ll think about it,” Azami mumbled, torn between attempting to hug Kumon back and squirming away.

“I want you to do my makeup next time, too!” Kumon insisted, still refusing to move away or lower his voice.

“Yeah, yeah,” Azami was about to finally move away when he felt his shoulder heat up. He froze, and after a few seconds, poked Kumon’s head. “Wait, your face is kind of red.”

“Eh?” Kumon finally moved away, just a little bit. “Now that you mention it, my eyes,” he stuttered over his words for a second, “are kind of spinning.”

Kumon half-sprawled out onto the ground and breathed way too heavily to be natural.

“Hey—” Azami wasn’t really sure how to help. Kumon just continued to pant on the ground as Azami flailed around, trying to figure out what to do in this kind of situation.

“You already have a fever. Somebody, help!” He called.

The front door opened and Juza appeared in the entrance, his expression as stone-cold as always. “Kumon?”

“Oh, good timing. He has a fever—”

“Ah, got it. I’ll carry him,” Juza said before Azami could even explain.

Juza picked his younger brother up, and right before he closed the door, he nodded to Azami. “Thanks, you were a big help.”

Azami just nodded back. When the door slammed shut, he sighed and pulled out his phone, all-the-while mumbling to himself, “jeez. He was a pain until the end.” In his heart, though, he knew that he didn’t mean it.

_Join a theater troupe, huh?_

Acting didn’t appeal to Azami, and nor did working with the Autumn Troupe if Sakyo was apart of it, but when Kumon brought up the opportunity to flaunt his makeup skills, it didn’t sound all that bad.

He leaned back onto his elbows and stared up at the sky, lit up by the moon and stars, and thought that maybe things would work out for him.

At age fourteen, Azami found himself surrounded by just enough friends for his liking.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Again, if you did, please comment and/or leave kudos! If you enjoyed this and want to see more shitposts, headcanons, and fics, please check out my tumblr: @ xxxbookaholic ! Have a nice rest of your day/night.


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